It is well known that damage to a roof and the resulting leakage thereof frequently occurs by reason of the build-up of ice in a gutter and along the drip edge portion of the roof which causes water flowing down the roof to back-up under the overlapping roof shingles and eventually to the roof sheathing. One suggested solution to this problem is exemplified in the Stanford U.S Pat. No. 4,081,657 in which a roof drip edge strip is made of two plastic sheets bonded together and between which are disposed electric heating coils. This Stanford suggested solution is not entirely satisfactory because it is thermally relatively inefficient. Additionally, if a gutter is provided along the drip edge, leaves and other material can build-up in the gutter causing water flow blockage and the formation of ice which would cause the water melted by the drip edge strip to back-up under the shingles. Also, it is not an apparatus which can be produced on site because extruding and bonding the plastic strips must be done by factory installed equipment. These disadvantages of the Stanford de-icing panel are overcome by the present invention.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a more thermally efficient de-icing panel than heretofore known types and which is relatively inexpensive to make and simple to install.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a de-icing panel which also serves as a gutter guard to prevent solid matter such as leaves and twigs from entering the gutter.
A further object of this invention is to provide a de-icing panel that is so formed as to provide a plurality of dams or weirs to block water flow upwardly along its surface.